Random code snippets, projects and musings about software from Eric Kidd, a developer and entrepreneur. You're welcome to contact me!

Comments on "Putting open source on trial"

Jun 27, 2003 • by Eric Kidd

Charles Cooper writes:
"After examining earlier this month what SCO claims is offending code,
however, I think the open-source community better prepare itself to
face tough criticism of its practices and ethics." Charles Cooper
bases this charge on Linus' unwillingness to read other people's
patents, and suggests that Linus also ignores other people's
copyrights. Unfortunately, this generalization badly weakens an
otherwise interesting article.

Linus On Patents

Cooper quotes Linus on software patents:

"It is a fact that I do not encourage engineers to look up patent
information, for example," Torvalds said. "You ask any lawyer about
it, and they will tell you that I'm right. It's not the job of an
engineer to try to find out about (others') patents, since that just
taints them."

Unfortunately, Linus may be right: Letting engineers read
patents is a legal minefield. Michael J. Radwin writes about his
experience:

Some companies, such as my former employer, are really concerned
about this. Not only do they discourage discussing patents at all
over email, they run HTTP proxy servers and completely cut off access
to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website from within the
corporate intranet.

The Mysterious Duplication

Charles Cooper continues:

I'd love to get his reaction after SCO produces documents with
keystroke-by-keystroke copies of proprietary IP--including
typographical mistakes--which subsequently made its way into the
open-source community. (SCO claims the IP was filched from its own
UnixWare, though the accuracy of the claim can't yet be proven or
refuted.)

Let's be honest here: Until SCO produces those documents, Linus
can't do a thing. He's being charged with all sorts of wrongdoing, but
zero public evidence has been provided. (And it's really easy for SCO to find all
duplications between UnixWare and Linux, and report them to Linus.)